Authentic miniature Victorian and Edwardian doll’s dolls, toys, games and playthings for the discerning doll’s house child.
Designed and handcrafted by professional artisan Sandra Morris

Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Day 11 - My workroom/sanctuary.....

Yesterday I promised you a tour of my workroom so here it is... 🙂During the summer of 2013, I began a major project... a workroom makeover.It was long overdue... the room hadn't been touched since we'd moved into the house 10 years earlier! The decor was dated, the ambiance depressing and there was nothing uplifting about it at all, except for what was created therein.

The room before...

So over the course of several weeks the room was emptied, carpet lifted and completely redecorated. I painted the cupboards and storage units, made new curtains and bunting (LOVE making bunting!) and after the new carpet was laid, set about putting everything back... with some creative twists!

The room after....!

It's hard to believe that this is exactly the same view of the room. Such a transformation!

Behind my chair, we made a standalone unit using a kitchen base and wall unit, flanked by two tall bookcases. Under the wall unit is a bank of IKEA wooden boxes, decorated with printed papers.

On the wall opposite the window is a large open-fronted storage unit, which holds boxes containing ribbons, trimmings, fabrics, toy components etc.

I printed out all the card inserts to go inside the plastic boxes. Each one is carefully labelled with the contents.

To the right of the desk, on the far wall, is another two base units with a full length worktop. Further storage is concealed behind a curtain.

Another bank of decorated IKEA wooden boxes provide lots of storage for tools and materials, as well as additional display space.

Flanking the IKEA boxes are two painted wooden shelves. My French doll shop sits in the right hand corner.

On a shelf in the left hand corner is my day nursery room box.

In the nursery, the children are having a doll's tea party

A very rare sight... my desk completely clear of clutter! It's cobbled together using a kitchen wall unit as the base, which provides yet more useful storage. The top is a piece of melamine covered board which is easy to keep clean.

On the wall between the two windows, a small display shelf showing recently completed work.

On another wall, a small display case with some of my own collection of tiny animals and pullalongs, along with my Noah's Ark.

On the side of the large storage unit just inside the door, the cover photo from The Doll's House Magazine showing my day nursery.

Which brings us back to the start and the spot in which I can usually be found. Although not always in this unnaturally tidy state!

I know I'm so lucky to have a dedicated room in which to work.. this lovely space makes my heart sing every time I step inside 😍

Kathy... I have a chair at each side of the desk, by the windows. I do my casting on the right side of the desk, and keep the left side clear for other work. Well that's the theory, in practice there tends to be blurring of the central line! ;)

I love the soothing atmosphere and the creative storage spaces throughout your studio. As I write this, I am up to my ears in the craft chaos of my own workroom and so the sight of your cleared work surface is shaming me enormously. However it was good to read in your last posting about how your table surface diminishes down to mere inches as well. Now I don't feel quite so bad.

I'm trying desperately to bring order to the chaos that is my workroom and yours is so beautiful and clean it makes me fear mine will never be this lovely. Sigh. It is, however, a goal for my year so get to it I must :-)

I have to say that these photos were taken right after the makeover was completed. It's never, ever been that neat and tidy since!!!!I keep them to remind me how it SHOULD look :)For those of you wishing to make your creative spaces more appealing I'd say go for it. I re-used all of my existing storage units, repainting them and upcycling wherever possible. I made all of the cushions, curtains, bunting etc. The only new things I bought, apart from the carpet and paint, were my swivel chair the IKEA wooden boxes and the plastic storage boxes. Everything else was repurposed.Sx

Thanks Sandra, for your reply. I had half expected you to say that you had a former pantry or walk in closet that you used for the drippy bits. I love do have a suggestion for you and any one else who could use it, for how to contain your mess when you are working on several unrelated projects at the same time. In food service places, school cafeterias for instance, an open shelving system on wheels usually, is used for people to place their finished tray of food for easy transport to the washing area. Now imagine that you have a tray of doll parts that you are joining, and another of Alice in Wonderland toys that need painting, and onother of your darling dollies needing dressing. You can work on one project, return it to the shelf unit until for instance you find that special piece of lace you need to complete it. Then while you order a new piece of that lace, you can store all the "works" for that tray safely, while you pull out another tray to work on. Eh voila! Your work top remains uncluttered and nothing gets lost.

Kathy... thanks for the suggestion.I do use something similar, in that I have a few spare A4 sized plastic boxes with lids.. the ones I use in my large wall storage unit.I keep various ongoing projects in those, and can then pull them out when I need to. At the moment, I'm using two spare boxes to keep my white and flesh coloured porcelain castings separate :)Sadly though, the system doesn't really keep my work spaces uncluttered. As soon as I clear a space, stuff/work in progress materialises to colonise any free space. I really need to work on that..... ;)